The present disclosure relates to a non-lethal, naval vessel interdiction weapon and, more particularly, to a non-lethal weapon for small vessel or large vessel interdiction.
One of the most important issues facing certain military, commercial and private naval operations is the ever-present risk of facing hostile action in the form of aggressive actions taken by a number or swarm of small vessels against a larger one. For example, a number of small ships can surround a relatively large US Navy warship and threaten to attack it or impede its progress. In such a case, the US Navy warship can almost never respond with lethal force without being commanded to do so unless one or more of the small ships take certain hostile acts for which the US Navy warship's rules of engagements dictate lethal responsiveness. Even then, given the potential for an asymmetric response by the US Navy warship, the desirability of such responsive actions may be limited.
For this and other cases, non-lethal weaponry has been developed. Such non-lethal weaponry may relate to low-tech or high-tech solutions. Low-tech weapons may include water cannons, pepper sprays, rubber bullets and loud sound emission devices while high-tech weaponry may include for example electro-magnetic (EM) weaponry (e.g., weapons that can send out EM pulses that can disable electronic systems in hostile vehicles). In any case, existing solutions are typically not suitable for naval use or are prohibitively expensive and insufficient for stopping or impeding hostile naval vessels.